Press Release

Rafael E. Vera continues his ongoing engagement with the domestic environment through explorations of its formal qualities, and examines the relationships and resulting symbolism inherent in creating and occupying interior space. Vera fashions unique objects and sets up tableaux which elevate the ordinariness of utilitarian components into an aesthetic inquiry. By isolating and studying the mechanics of daily life, Vera exposes a formerly unexamined realm of hyper-objects that assume powerful roles yet attract little or no attention to themselves until revealed.

Going beyond the well-established trope of the ready-made, Vera deconstructs domestic objects down to their constituent elements — a sheet of glass, a blanket, wallpaper, a dryer vent — and reassembles them for inspection as iconic elements in a larger story. This is a narrative that just about everyone has lived but is rarely celebrated or promulgated.